Public relations helps our
complex, pluralistic society to reach decisions and
function more effective by contributing to mutual
understanding among groups and institutions. It
serves to bring private and public policies into
harmony.

Public relations serves a wide
variety of institutions in society such as
businesses, trade unions, government agencies,
voluntary associations, foundations, hospitals,
schools, colleges, and religious institutions. To
achieve their goals, these institutions must develop
effective relationships with many different audiences
or publics such as employees, members, customers,
local communities, shareholders, and other
institutions, and with society at large.

Effective public
relations should encompass the following:

Anticipating, analyzing and
interpreting public opinion, attitudes, and
issues that might impact the operations and plans
of an organization.

Counseling management at all
levels in an organization with regard to policy
decisions, courses of action, and communications.

Researching, conducting, and
evaluating, on a continuing basis, programs of
action and communication to achieve the informed
public understanding necessary to success of an
organization's aims.

Planning and implementing the
organization's efforts to influence or change
public policy.

Well be looking at case
examples of these principles applied to strategic public
relations campaigns, as well as circumstances that
warrant quick spontaneous action. One basic rule of
journalism: dont just tell people about something.
SHOW them. Well examine lots of public relations
case studies  real life stories providing insight
into principles of PR. Lets start with a couple.

Case Studies

There are many case examples of
effective public relations. But examples of bad public
relations tactics can be more interesting. Heres
one:

The Disney Corporation proposed opening
$650-million Civil War theme park in the U.S.
state of Virginia. This was greeted by a public
outcry and media ridicule. The American Civil War
was some 130 years ago, but it is still on many
Americans minds. More Americans were killed
in Civil war than World War I, World War II, the
Korean and Vietnam wars combined. There were not
as many deaths as in the USSRs Great
Patriotic War, but it is still a very painful
memory for many Americans. Many people perceived
the Disney Civil War theme park as trivializing
history, exploiting the tragedy. It received lots
of bad press. Cartoonists depicted Mickey Mouse
on the battlefield. Disney soon backed off the
proposal. This demonstrates how even with lots of
money for public relations (and Disney has plenty
of PR money), you can still wind up looking bad.
(Learn more
about this case)

And there is no shortage of PR victories. One of the
most successful of American media relation campaigns
happened right in Russia:

When McDonalds opened its Moscow restaurant in
1990, opening ceremonies were carried live by all
three major U.S. television networks in morning
programs, reaching millions of viewers. The
program anchors interviewed McDonalds officials
and executives (PR people were prominent both in
front of and behind the cameras). It was a big
story in America. The media used McDonalds as a
symbol for capitalism entering Russia, but the
important symbol for McDonalds was getting its
golden arches on TV to a large viewing audience.